By Bill Powers
Special to Stampeders.com
There are journalists who sometimes get by thinking that facts shouldn’t stand in the way of a good story. And sometimes it makes for great copy.
This is one of those times. Fifty years ago this week, McMahon Stadium opened for business and the stories of a building going up in just 100 days for $l million have been circulating since that time.
Of course, it is well known that the brothers McMahon, George and Frank, financed the project to replace and old and dangerous Mewata Stadium down on 9th Ave. S.W.
So here we go.
Legend: it was built in 100 days. Fact: it took 103 days to be completed.
Legend: it cost $1 million. Fact: The final tally was $1,050,000.
That’s a $50,000 overrun, which is not bad when you look at what’s happening today in our city not mentioning, of course, a certain pedestrian bridge over the river.
But the real story is how the whole thing got started. Legend has it that the general manager of the day, a man called Jim Finks, was treating his favourite media types to a few Christmas drinks in his old and creepy Mewata office. After several beers and a few shots of liquor, he took the likes of Gorde Hunter of the Calgary Herald and play-by-play man Eric Bishop out into the cold and stepped on one of the bleachers, making it crumble while warning that they needed a new stadium or the football club was doomed to failure and an eventual death.
Back inside in a warmer office, more drinks were consumed, and possibly more threats of doom and death issued, and the media types, armed with several ounces of liquid courage, headed for the house of George McMahon with the suggestion he and his equally wealthy brother Frank finance the new stadium.
When word leaked out, the spotlight was on the McMahons and they responded.. The result of that request is the building the Calgary Stampeders call home 50 years later.
In brief, George and Frank, put up $300,000 in cash and guaranteed another $700,000 if it was necessary. It was, but the mortgage was burned only 13 years later.
Since that time, McMahon Stadium has been home to four Grey Cup games, the 1988 Winter Olympics, a visit by Queen Elizabeth in 1990, and numerous concerts, not to mention Stampeders, high school, university and junior football games along with many other amateur sports.
As for the Stamps, they have won 274 games here and in the ’90s alone had an amazing record of 77 wins and just 13 losses.
But back to the legend and the famous bet. George McMahon told project manager Red Dutton the building could be done before the start of the season, which was only four months away. Dutton didn’t think it could. McMahon suggested a bet and Dutton asked how much. When told $1,500 he took the bet and the race was on.
Dutton was a hands-on project manager but McMahon made daily stops to keep tabs on the developments. On opening day, there was a downtown luncheon and when George and Frank McMahon walked into the room, they got a standing ovation. During the lunch, someone brought up the bet and Dutton responded by paying George with 1,500 one-dollar bills. The joint went wild.
That night, George performed the ceremonial kickoff, sending the ball a dazzling 14 yards. But the building was ready in 102 days and at just over $1 million bucks. It could only happen in Calgary and only because of people like the McMahons.
We might note, too, that George McMahon not only helped finance the building, he took over as president of the Stampeders in 1960 and held the post until 1967. Only Stan Schwartz, who is still in the front office today, can match those numbers. And it was George and then general manager Rogers Lehew who introduced the Presidents’ Ring award which goes annually to the play deemed most valuable by his teammates.
As an afterthought, I think you should know that since Year 1, more than $32 million worth of improvements have been made to McMahon including increasing the number of seats to 35,653 from the original 19,536.
But credit the McMahon brothers for getting it started.
>> McMahon Stadium photo gallery